David A. Nicholas

Dave Nicholas is Of Counsel to Wolf Popper LLP. He represents citizen and environmental groups in cases to protect natural resources and public health. Dave has successfully brought cases against companies in the oil, chemical, steel, and food sectors, among others. In 2014 he tried the largest Clean Air Act enforcement suit ever brought by citizens, against ExxonMobil in the Southern District of Texas for violations of emissions limits at the company's Baytown complex. The case resulted in the largest monetary penalty imposed in the history of citizen enforcement under the Clean Air Act. Dave's cases have also resulted in record-setting Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act monetary penalties in a number of states, including California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Dave's work has also resulted in halting aerial spraying of pesticides over commercial blueberry fields in Maine; cleanup of ordnance and chemical weapons at a former U.S. Army base in California; upgrading the Newport, Rhode Island sewer system; and the banning of traps that catch endangered Canada lynx in Maine, among other achievements. He has represented public interest groups in state court cases involving a variety of constitutional issues.

Dave also represents consumers and consumer groups in cases to enforce unfair trade practice laws.

Dave began his career in New York City with Pryor Cashman and then in Boston with the firm Hale and Dorr (now Wilmer Hale), where he worked on cases involving civil RICO, fraud, breach of contract, and lender liability, among other disputes. From 1991-2003 he was a Senior Attorney with the National Environmental Law Center in Boston, where he represented environmental organizations in federal enforcement suits against large industrial companies. Since 2003, and prior to becoming Of Counsel to Wolf Popper, Dave had been a solo attorney, continuing to represent citizen and environmental groups in public interst cases to protect natural resources and public health.  Dave has been responsible for all aspects of litigation.

Experience

In addition to the ExxonMobil case (Environment Texas Citizen Lobby, Inc. v. ExxonMobil Corporation), Dave’s cases have included:

• Environment Texas v. Shell Oil Company. Clean Air Act citizen suit against Houston area refinery and chemical plant for air pollution, including excessive emissions of air toxics. Resulted in consent decree requiring significant emissions reductions, extensive plant upgrades, enhanced monitoring of air emissions, and a $5.8 million penalty.
• Environment Texas v. Pasadena Refining System, Inc. Clean Air Act citizen suit against subsidiary of Petrobras, the state-owned oil company of Brazil, for violations of hourly and annual emissions limits on fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and other pollutants. Resulted in consent decree mandating pollution control upgrades at a 100-year old refinery, and a $3.25 million monetary penalty.
• USPIRG v. Atlantic Salmon of Maine and Stolt Sea Farm. Clean Water Act citizen suits against dominant companies of the Maine salmon farming industry for operating without discharge permits. Trial resulted in an injunction imposing significant changes to operating practices of companies and a shutdown of new production for up to three years. Final order reported at 257 F. Supp. 2d 407 (D. Me. 2003). Injunction upheld on appeal at 339 F.3d 23 (1st Cir. 2003). A companion case against Heritage Salmon resulted in a consent decree imposing precedent-setting environmental restrictions on salmon farms.
• PennEnvironment v. ArcelorMittal. Clean Air Act citizen suit against the world’s largest steel company for violations at the Monessen Coke Plant in Pennsylvania. Consent decree required a full-scale trial of innovative technology to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and other environmental, operational and plant upgrades, and a $1.8 million monetary penalty. The U.S. EPA and State of Pennsylvania joined the suit as plaintiffs.
• Animal Protection Institute v. Martin. Endangered Species Act citizen suit against head of Maine fish and wildlife agency for violating the ESA by authorizing trapping that captures and kills threatened Canada lynx. Resulted in consent decree that banned traps likely to capture lynx.
• Environment Florida v. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation. Clean Water Act citizen suit against second largest chicken producer in the world for illegally polluting the Suwannee River at its chicken processing plant in Live Oak, Florida. Resulted in consent decree requiring measures to upgrade wastewater treatment plant, reduce discharge of toxics, and reduce water use in processing, and a $1.3 million penalty.
• PennEnvironment v. U.S. Steel. Clean Air Act suit against three-plant steel making complex in the Mon Valley outside of Pittsburgh after it continued to operate following a fire that destroyed critical pollution controls.  Resulted in a consent decree requiring $37 million of upgrades to maintenance and pollution controls and a $5 million penalty, most of which funded public health projects in the Mon Valley.